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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24668512">Tavern Reckonings</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NomDePlumLoki/pseuds/NomDePlumLoki'>NomDePlumLoki</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Henry IV - Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 1 - Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 2 - Shakespeare, Henry V - Shakespeare</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, the boars head tavern</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:33:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24668512</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NomDePlumLoki/pseuds/NomDePlumLoki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hal contemplates the future of the Boar's Head tavern.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Prince Hal (Shakespeare)/Edward "Ned" Poins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tavern Reckonings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tavern Reckonings</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Boar’s Head tavern is little better than its occupants. Grimy, odiferous, the floor sticky with spilt sack and bodily fluids, if it is not the lowliest place in the kingdom it is certainly the lowest. Everyone there knows it.</p>
<p>Hal sits on his stool in the corner playing prince to Falstaff’s king while he waits for Poins to arrive. The church bells tell him his young man is late, but he doesn’t mind. Poins can be as late as he likes for Hal is in no hurry to go home tonight.</p>
<p>Home means another lecture, but the tavern is freedom. He drinks in nicer inns sometimes, places where bards rather than bawds provide the entertainment and men drink less and eat more. But there’s nowhere else he can pull Poins onto his knee, nowhere else they can call each other sweet and care not what the men around them think. While Hal lives by his father’s rules this is the best they can hope for.</p>
<p>Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Poins tumbles through the door wearing a grin and those peach leggings that so become him.</p>
<p>“Here’s my sweet Ned,” Hal says, standing to greet him and slapping him on the back when he’s close enough to touch.</p>
<p>Ned’s cheeks are rosy and it’s clear he’s hurried to get here. “Are you well?” he asks, stepping closer to him for a more than friendly embrace.</p>
<p>“Now you’re here. You?”</p>
<p>“Now we’re together I’m very well indeed. Shall we get a room?”</p>
<p>Privacy holds its own promise. There are still things men cannot be seen doing together, though Doll does it up against the wall for tuppence and a drink. The tavern provides plenty of that for all other men, but he and Poins get a private room, blind eyes, and deaf ears.</p>
<p>“Let me buy you a drink first,” Hal replies, waving to Francis for sack. “We’ve company to keep.”</p>
<p>Kings cannot keep court with drunkards and whores and it’s never been Hal’s intention to do so. This is princely study, and he will mix with his people tonight, but when Hal becomes Henry he’ll invite whoever he wants to the palace. Ned’s already a gentleman, and he’ll be a gentleman with means when Hal has rewarded his friendship. They’ll be together long after he’s said goodbye to the others.</p>
<p>Hal looks around at the ragtag band and wonders what will become of them when this is all over.</p>
<p>Falstaff has friends in Windsor, or so he says. He’ll be all right, seeing out his old age in further up the river. The others too, they’ll find their way. If the men can put aside drinking and wenching then there’ll be a place in the army for them. The mistress and Doll will likely ply their trade elsewhere, for they’ll never be virtuous women though they may repent their sins. They all will be fine ten miles from the royal person.</p>
<p>But he can’t banish the Boar’s Head. One day this will be a respectable place; Hal will see it is so. This is where he became a man, where he fell in love, and the walls have witnessed things he’d never speak aloud to any but Ned. It is a monument to the fun he has had, and he’ll think fondly of it when it’s scrubbed clean in the same way he expects to feel nostalgia for times like this. If he must do better, and he certainly must when he is king, the Boar’s Head tavern must do the same.</p>
<p> </p>
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